Kenwood: January 1995.

In January 1995, Andrew Hawkins, finding the gates at Kenwood open, took the decision to chance his luck and headed up to the house to see if he might be allowed to film the exterior. Lucky, really, because what he discovered was a building site, overseen by an amenable Irish foreman who agreed to give Andrew and his friend the grand tour. Thus, Andy's camera recorded the last gasp of the house as John would have known it - shortly thereafter the kitchen, sunroom and garage were demolished and rebuilt, and the first floor master bedroom and attic were gutted and reconstructed.
I will try and put the footage on the blog over Christmas, but in the meantime here, with a minimum of verbiage from me, are some screencaps and a bit of context.

ENTRANCE HALL - The doorway visible here led to the kitchen. Note too the large mirror, still in place:

KITCHEN - Split level, an upper "breakfast terrace" and lower cooking area:

Note the floor tiles, some of which were still evident:

LIVING ROOM - Note the ceiling:

DEN - Colour scheme still in place, 25 years later:

Back to the entrance hall, this time facing the main stairs to the upper levels:

MASTER BEDROOM:

EN-SUITE BATHROOM:

ATTIC: Again, compare the photo of John with the situation in January 1995; clearly the same:

ATTIC LIVING ROOM - Next to the studio room, John pictured here above. This room was where Pete Shotton recalled helping with the general concept for Eleanor Rigby:

ATTIC BEDROOM - Home at various times to Fred Lennon, Pauline Lennon, and even John and Cyn whilst renovation was going on in 1964:

ATTIC TANK ROOM - Home to John's semi-feral cats:

ATTIC CORRIDOR - A glimpse of the studio room at the far end:

SUNROOM EXTERIOR - I'm still not sure if this is a completely different structure, or simply the old sunroom with a new roof and fireplace installed:

SUNROOM INTERIOR:

POOLSIDE STEPS:

GARAGE 1:

GARAGE 2:

And there we have it, for nau. As mentioned, at some point before long the footage itself will appear here.
Finally, I'd like to express my thanks to Andy for his generosity in allowing me to use his film. Cheers, mate!

Kenwood: hall action.

More errr... "action". Cynthia, plus ever present "snout", outside the hall. 1967. Or 1968.

Let's hope something more interesting happens sometime soon.

Kenwood: Takis in da house.

A fascinating email from Ken Wood sheds some light (kill me now) on the new hall pic. He points out that Greek kinetic artist Takis exhibited several of his light sculptures at Indica in November 1966. Both Paul and John bought pieces from the show. The Takis exhibition actually followed Yoko's at the same gallery, though John confused the chronology (he's not the only one...ahem) in the Lennon Remembers interview:

"WENNER:
How did you meet Yoko?
LENNON:
I’m sure I’ve told you this many times. How did I meet Yoko? There was a sort of underground clique in London; John Dunbar, who was married to Marianne Faithful, had an art gallery in London called Indica and I’d been going around to galleries a bit on my off days in between records. I’d been to see a Takis exhibition, I don’t know if you know what that means, he does multiple electro-magnetic sculptures, and a few exhibitions in different galleries who showed these sort of unknown artists or underground artists. I got the word that this amazing woman was putting on a show next week and there was going to be something about people in bags, in black bags, and it was ..."

The pic above shows Takis with one of his pieces, White Signal (1966), which was indeed exhibited at the Indica show. Compare it with the object in the new hall pic.
I reckon that what we are looking at is the Takis piece that John bought at Indica - which probably explains the photo; a Takis light sculpture in situ in a famous patron's entrance hall (missus)(seriously, kill me now).
This explanation also narrows the dating of the pic - I'd say it very likely was taken in early '67.
Great work Mr Wood.
NB: I've amended this post, as the previous version relied on John's faulty memory - I blame him for all my shortcomings.
FURTHER UPDATE: Sam Hampson has sent in the following pic, which doesn't really require any further explanation:


Thanks to him.

Kenwood: mirror business.

I am indebted to those who have pointed out what nun but a fule could have missed - namely, that enormous mirrored wall which I failed to spot for reasons of beer. It's even there on the Partridge plan; so there wasn't (just) a mirrored door to the kitchen, but rather an entire mirrored wall.
Which means these pics should possibly be this way round:


Or not.

Kenwood: entrance hall.

Assuming, gentle readah, that ye are here to celebrate and not ridicule (not to mention titter (Sir Thomas)), then you will imagine my excitement at this: a professional picture of the entrance hall at Kenwood, taken, I'd guess, sometime in late 1966, or early 1967. The detail is quite amazing, but, in the nature of these things, the picture poses more questions than it answers.
To take the latter first, one thing that has, sadly (in many senses), bugged me for ages is the table sold at auction by Cooper Owen a few years back:


The literature claimed this was a fixture at Kenwood. To prove it, the sale included a photo of John and Julian at Kenwood in front of said table - not included in the catalogue, of course, and not one I have ever seen. (I'd guess it's a hitherto uncirculated June 29th shot.)
So I was, I confess, pleased to spot it there, sitting in the middle of the hall (or rather, beside the completely bleeding obvious mirror) in this new photo:


Looking back, I realise the damned thing was actually there in one of Cathy Kelleher Sarver's '68 Kenwood pics (though the quality was too low to see it before now):


And so to unanswered questions. Why was this picture taken? I suspect it may have had something to do with the lights:


There's actually another pic illustrating the effects of these when the main hall lights were switched off:


Suitably psychedelic (and there's that blue again).
But I don't know. There must be more from this session: as I say, they are professional photos, and unique in being more interested in Kenwood (or at least lights) than celebrity.
Similar shots of the rest of the house would be, to put it bluntly, craaankin'.

Kenwood: more entrance hall.

Always "n-n-n-nice" to see new pics o' Kenwood back in the day...and here are a couple hitherto not widely seen. These were taken, as regulah readahs will know, in the entrance hall (dark, "bok"-lined, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc...). Note the "boks":


...and, more interestingly, that guitar again...:


The pic of Julian was used (I think) to sell the table visible behind him at auction not that long ago. More on that, inevitably, to follow.
Huge thanks to Mark Jones for sending the pics.

Kenwood: summer, 1968 - part 1.

(May as well start at the front door.)
Cathy Kelleher Sarver visited Kenwood shortly after John & Yoko had moved out in the summer of 1968, and...well, she can tell you herself:
"It was summer 1968 and John had stopped living at Kenwood but the house was so very special to me, I just had to go there anyway. My friend and I went to the house and rang the doorbell. A lady answered the door. I asked if I could take a picture of inside the door and she let us into the long foyer. Then she opened the door to the living room and I got that picture and then she opened the door to what I call the "music room". Both rooms were about three steps down from the foyer (the house was built on a hill). In Alf Bicknell's book he talks about helping John paint a room red. This must be the room! Then we went back to the door and I asked if I could take a picture of her and she said, “Yes". After I took the picture of her with the foyer's built-in bookcases in the background she said, "Who are you going to tell your friends I am?”. Neither of us spoke but I was thinking, "The maid?", but didn't want to say that. Then she said, "I'm Cynthia's mother." WOW! It was Mrs. Powell. We thanked her and left the door, which she shut. THEN we went all over the property!!! And no one knew!!! And then we left. We were such good fans we didn't even take a leaf off a tree!!!! At some point in the conversation Mrs. Powell told us Cynthia was at the pool watching Julian and a neighborhood friend. I took a picture through the fence from the back driveway and you can just barely see two little heads in the water!!!!!"


All in all, Cathy took 20 (count 'em) pics that day, and guess wot? They are all going to be on here, over the next few days. First off, the "naked lady" door knocker, together with the Lennon coat of arms. Clearly a hastily snatched pic, I've paired it with the one from the end of the year showing the same thing. Above, the entrance hall (with John's nemesis much in evidence) - and final proof that it was the location for those John-in-the-bathchair shots. Note that the books have all gone, later to appear at Tittenhurst. Funny, that. John didn't care about much of the detritus he'd accumulated at Kenwood, judging by the fact that Cynthia took most of it, uncontested. But he clearly wanted the books. (Musta been a "reader".)


Many thanks go to Cathy for so generously agreeing to let us see her photos and hear her story, and to her good friend, the wonderful Lizzie Bravo, who sorted it all out. Aguardientes all round.

Kenwood: entrance hall - photo mural.

John went off on the Beatles' first U.S. tour having given Ken Partridge a free hand to renovate Kenwood as he saw fit. He arrived home to find the house over-run with builders, but one thing that had been accomplished in his absence was the re-styling of the entrance hall, which included a large blow-up of one of the illustrations from In His Own Write - a droll (and, discounting the "rampling", prescient) comment by Partridge on what he felt the average evening at Kenwood would probably resemble: "Puffing and globbering they drugged themselves rampling or dancing with wild abdomen, stubbing in wild postumes amongst themselves". The idea was Partridge's, and John, who was very surprised to see it, spent some time quizzing Partridge as to how exactly it had been accomplished. (The illustration was made by photographing the image, blowing it up and then transferring it to material which was then affixed to the wall.)
Now, the question, as ever, is...where exactly was the illustration situated? As we have seen, the main wall in the hall was taken up by shelving filled with old books, and looking at the plan, there doesn't seem to be another wall big enough to house it. Sure enough, though, looking closely at the unaltered Partridge plan, the words "photo mural" are there, pointing to the selfsame large wall. So, this means that originally no shelving was there:


John must have removed (or at least covered) the illustration for some reason - possibly because he realised that it was really a sly dig at him! The book laden shelving came later - and in fact, John and Cynthia made many other alterations to Partridge's interior designs upon his departure. (The other feature in the hall was a suit of armour, the helmet of which opened to reveal a sign reading "Harry - Gone For Lunch".)
By 2006, both illustration and shelving were long gone, but the wall, having been stripped back and painted white, again housed a piece of art (of some kind):

Kenwood: Pepper sleeve/ sunroom detritus.

One of the most obvious objects on view atop the sunroom shelves in June 1967 was what appears to have been an ornate candle holder of some kind. Blog reader Sergey has sent an email pointing out that this very item is part of the Pepper sleeve, situated on the ground to the left of the Rolling Stones doll, and he's sent the above to illustrate.
And so it is. I certainly hadn't spotted it before. In fact, that little corner of the sleeve has at least 3 Kenwood related articles: the "candle holder", the portable television and the statue. Lewis Carroll's head (not literally) also ended up gracing the entrance hall bookshelves...


...and at least one other cutout found its way to Kenwood too, which I'll deal with in a forthcoming post.
Funny how you stop seeing the over familiar. Thanks to Sergey.

Entrance hall: circa 1965 & 2006.

There is more on the various entrance hall incarnations elsewhere on the blog, so I won't go into it here.